Women's Basketball: Jeffery leads CU Buffs past Utah

Senior scores 28, grabs 12 rebounds in victory

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Chucky Jeffery was issued a challenge before Tuesday's game against Utah.

The senior responded in brilliant fashion.

Jeffery scored a season-high 28 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and led the 23rd-ranked Buffaloes to a 67-57 win over Utah at Coors Events Center on Tuesday night.

"Her role sometimes is just to take the bull by the horn and just go after it," CU coach Linda Lappe said. "She's going to have to put us on her back at times, mostly because she has the capabilities of doing that."

Jeffery, who notched her 23rd career double-double, sparked a 20-3 run midway through the second half that gave CU the lead for good. She had 11 points in that run and punctuated it with a 3-pointer to give CU its biggest lead, 58-48, with 5:35 to play."It helps the team," Jeffery said of her big game. "If I'm not creating, we kind of get stagnant on offense, so I just try to listen to what my coaches are telling me and I try to utilize that on the floor."

CU had lost two in a row over the weekend against No. 5 Stanford and No. 7 Cal. In those games, Jeffery scored 17 and 13 points, but didn't provide the Buffs the spark they needed.

"I told her I didn't think she had a great weekend against Cal and Stanford," Lappe said. "She was being really tentative, she was passing up a lot of shots, passing up some drives. We needed more from her, and I thought she responded really well tonight."

Looking to avoid a third-straight defeat, Jeffery was aggressive early against the Utes (9-5, 0-3).

She had eight points during a 10-1 run to close the first half. Her bucket with 58 seconds to play in the half gave CU its first lead of the game. She was also 7-for-8 from the free throw line after attempting just six free throws in the previous four games, combined.

"(Lappe) told me when I'm aggressive, I make smarter and better decisions to create and help my teammates score, as well," Jeffery said. "I just came out and I was being as aggressive as I could be. Every time I had an on-ball screen or things like that, I just looked to score first."

The Buffs needed it, because Utah gave them all they could handle.

Utah's Michelle Plouffe had 10 of her 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, to stake the Utes to a 17-10 lead midway through the first half. The Utes matched their big lead at 30-22 on a pair of free throws with 4:42 to play in the first half, but CU responded with its 10-1 run.

Jeffery scored 14 of her points in the first half, sinking seven of her 12 shots. While she handled the bulk of CU's scoring, Swan gave the Buffs a lift on the glass. Swan topped her career-high in rebounds during the first 20 minutes, snagging eight before the break.

Coming out of the halftime break, Utah seized control, outscoring the Buffs 14-6 during the first 7:04 of the half to take a 45-38 lead. CU responded with its 20-3 run and outscored the Utes 29-12 during the final 12:40 of the contest.

After Jeffery's 3-pointer with 5:35 to go, the Buffs had turnovers on four of their next five possessions, but Utah couldn't capitalize. CU didn't hit another field goal after Jeffery's 3, but went 9-for-10 at the line in the final 2:20. CU was 22-for-26 at the line in the second half.

"It was really important," Jeffery said of the win. "We knew we couldn't go on a longer slide. We regrouped again and we came out and we played and we played hard and we knew we had to get this one. Now we have to turn around and go back to Utah (on Sunday) and try to get them there, as well."

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